In a new interview with Zane Lowe, Ozzy Osbourne revealed that Ordinary Man — his first solo LP in a decade — is the first album he’s made completely sober.
“I thought it was the drugs and the alcohol that made it all work,” he told Lowe. “But it’s not true. All I was doing for years is self-medicating ’cause I didn’t like the way I felt. But then this is the first album I’ve co-wrote and recorded fucking completely sober.”
The Godfather of Heavy Metal released his reunion album with Black Sabbath in 2013 and has been sober for seven years. “The last album, I wrote some of it stoned,” he admits. “I quite like being sober now. ‘Cause at least I can remember the fucking thing I did yesterday.”
In the clip above, Osbourne and Lowe reflect on late musicians who made legendary music, including Alice in Chains’ Layne Staley and Linkin Parks’ Chester Bennington. “But then, why am I here?” he asks Lowe. “Chris Cornell was a great, great singer.”
“I’m not being funny and I’m not being cocky, I can remember times when I’ve fucking woke up with puke down me,” he says. “I’ve fucking woke up with a bed full of blood, when I’ve fallen down and banged my head or whatever. My friend John Bonham, I used to go drinking with him. He died. Bon Scott, he died. I don’t know what to fuckin’ say.”
“People go, ‘You must have the Midas touch’ or whatever,” he continues. “I’m lucky. I wasn’t any better than any of them. I even fucking would go so far as to say I was worse in some cases. But it’s the luck of the draw. Seventy-one and I don’t fucking understand how I got there.”
Osbourne released Ordinary Man earlier this month, featuring Elton John, Slash, Tom Morello and Post Malone. In a recent interview with Good Morning America, the singer revealed he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. “I feel better now that I’ve owned up to the fact that I have a case of Parkinson’s,” he said. “And I just hope [my fans] hang on and they’re there for me because I need them.”